Contents

The program aired fifty one-hour episodes from September 29, 1960, to May 10, 1962. The first season was shot in black-and-white, the second in colour. Co-starring with MacLane in the 1960–1961 season was Don Collier as deputy marshal Will Foreman. In the second season, MacLane left the program, and Collier was promoted to full marshal, with Bruce Yarnell joining the cast as deputy marshal Chalk Breeson. Jock Gaynor appeared in the first season as deputy Heck Martin, the on-screen nephew of Will Foreman. Slim Pickens appeared as "Slim" in the second season.[1]Judy Lewis also appeared the second season as Connie Masters, an employee of the Wells Fargo office in Stillwater.[2]

In the first season, episodes of Outlaws were told from the view of the outlaws themselves. James Coburn starred on February 16, 1961, as "Culley", a confused young outlaw who wants to repent. He stops on a chase from the law to help a blind elderly man (Henry Hull). Judson Pratt appeared in the episode too in the role of Daggott. For the second season, telecast in color, the stories were told from the standpoint of the lawmen.[2]

A two-part segment entitled "Starfall" aired on November 24 and December 1, 1960, with guest stars John Anderson, Edgar Buchanan, Pippa Scott, Cloris Leachman, James Millhollin, William Shatner, and Jack Warden.[6]Johnny Washbrook, the child actor from My Friend Flicka appeared as Vince Nickels, along with character actor J. Pat O'Malley in the 1960 episode "The Quiet Killer". In another two-parter on January 26 and February 2, 1961, entitled "The Daltons Must Die", Charles Carlson, Robert Lansing, and Larry Pennell played the Dalton brothers, Grat, Frank, and Robert Dalton, respectively.[7] In December 1960, Clegg Hoyt played the role of Isham Dart in "The Quiet Killer."[8]

On May 4, 1961, the series aired the episode "Sam Bass" about the outlaw Sam Bass, with Jack Chaplain in the guest starring title role; Gregg Palmer appeared in the episode as Heff. Bass was shot on July 19, 1878, and died two days later on his twenty-seventh birthday in Round Rock, Texas, north of Austin, after having been betrayed by an associate.[11] Cliff Robertson starred in the title role and wrote the episode "The Dark Sunrise of Griff Kincaid", which aired on January 4, 1962. The costars were Ed Asner, Nancy Kulp, and Reta Shaw.[12]

"Outlaws was a good western for television, but it never got the respect it deserved, and like many other westerns during the early 1960s, it got ran over by the cop and sitcom shows", wrote Ronald Jackson and Doug Abbott in the book Fifty Years of the Television Western.[1]